Deuteronomy 30:20 – “…CHOOSE LIFE….love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life…”
This was one of the passages that we talked about in church tonight and it totally made me cry. So simple. So succinct. And so completely profound. And though it didn’t come up in the sermon, I got a very clear picture of a story that took place hundreds of years later in the New Testament. A story that I have written about before because it sums up what Jesus wants of us and for us.
The story of Mary and Martha. I won’t go into the whole story here (you can read it in my older posts), but the gist of it is that Martha was running around trying to serve and ultimately impress Jesus with her efforts and deeds and busyness. Mary, on the other hand, is sitting at Jesus’ feet, listening to His words. And when Martha complained that Mary wasn’t helping her, Jesus said , “Mary has CHOSEN what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10). In another passage in John it tells us that “Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair.” (John 12).
Doesn’t Mary show a great picture of what was said in Deuteronomy? “CHOOSE LIFE….love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him.” Mary loved her Lord, listened to His voice and held fast to him. She got it. She knew that “… the LORD is your life…” And she CHOSE LIFE. I want to be Mary-er. I want to choose life….
